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Manta-ray-Class Light Freighter
The Manta-Ray Class Light Freighter is a space vessel on the Online Star Wars Roll Playing Board known as the Brotherhood of Darkness. It's a light freighter, used for transporting small goods from one planet to another. It is a small vessel, but large enough to carry several dozen tons worth of cargo within it's single hold. History The Manta-ray Class saw service during the Great Sith War. It was produced at the Kuat shipyards in huge quantities for the Republic to supplement their cargo transportation needs during the war. Manta-ray's are responsible for transporting almost 19 percent of the republics cargo during the Great Sith War, most of which were medical supplies. Hundreds of Manta-ray's were converted into medical transports even, acting as surface to orbit emergency vehicles for wounded troops or evacuating civilians. They were well known for their easy to learn controls and reliability despite the complicated rotating engine mechanism on it's exterior thrusters. After the war ended however, they fell out of use. They're massive numbers lead to cheap prices which Kuat Drive yards couldn't sustain. In a rare move by Kuat, they dropped the line completely, dedicating the production facilities that made them to rebuilding the republic's lost military vessels. The Manta-rays already in the market were almost just as forgotten. Without support from Kuat, buyers lost interest in a ship with lots of complicated moving parts that was time consuming to maintain. Manta-rays started filling up used ship lots until finally the majority of them were sold for scrap or spare parts. Weapons The base model was not manufactured with any kind of weapons. The manufacturers decided that it would depend on it's armor, speed and maneuverability for it's defense. Cockpit Compared to most ships it's size, the cockpit is huge. room enough to fit 6 occupants comfortably and a very large canopy give the pilot and passengers a large field of view, especially above the craft. Both the pilots seat and the copilots seat are on a swivel mount allowing them to turn around to face away from the viewport while the 4 passenger seats are all fixed.It's controls were praised as some of the simplest designed, and were replicated in many ships thereafter. On top of the center console is a holographic projector which is tied into the ships communications array for holographic communications. Hull/Armor The original design for the Manta-ray was not as a warship, but it was pressed into services as a wartime freighter for the republic so the original designs were modified to include 3 inch hardened durosteal armor over most of the ship. Kuat Drive Yards had a supply of hardened durosteal that they used for republic carriers and battlecruisers. This supply was taking up space in their shipyards however since the republic was hard pressed in the war effort to afford construction of such large ships so Kuat turned around and put a fresh layer of 3 inch hardened battlecruiser hull around every Manta-ray they cranked out. As a result, the Manta-rays were very strong craft, which lent to their atmospheric flight and notoriety of being able to get down to the planets surface fast without melting away the hull. They also too a lot of fire during the war. Being unarmed their armor and shields, along with their engines were their primary form of defense which made them favorite targets for Sith fighters which didn't have to worry about getting shot back at. Shields The shield system on the Manta-Ray is mediocre. the ships already greater then average armor did not give Kuat engineers any incentive to protect her with a lot of energy shield coverage so she only has a single shield generator which protects the ship on forward and aft arcs.The shields are capable of withstanding a single turbolaser blast, but much more then that and the ship will suffer catastrophic damage. Against fighters and small arms though, the combination of her armor and shields makes her just as hardened as a main battle tank. Engines The pride of Kuat engineering, her engine systems are ahead of her time. The Manta-ray has 4 engines. Her primary engines are the inboard ion engines, just outboard of her tail. These provide primary propulsion for the craft during atmospheric and space flight. Alone they can propel the ship at about the same rate as a YT-1300 freighter. Her secondary engines however are much larger and act as her navigational thrusters during spaceflight. The secondary engines are the outboard pods which are on a swivel mount. The ships repulsor engine allows it to do vertical takeoff and landings, but with her secondary engines, her vertical takeoff is much faster, allowing her to get up and away at her top speed much faster then an average ship just using it's primary engine and repulsors. Her ability to take off quickly like that is what earned her a spot on many medical frigates as a search and rescue medical transport as well as an emergency evacuation transport during the war. Living Conditions The Manta-Ray is can easily be crewed by 3 people, a pilot, Co-pilot and engineer. However she can be skeleton crewed by a single person for extended periods of time with little trouble. To house the optimal crew however, the ship boasts 4 living quarters for crew and passengers. Each room has a pair of racks in them, a refresher two large lockers for storage and a desk with chair. Extra storage is also available under each rack. A common civilian modification is to have one of the rooms altered to only have one rack and act as the captains quarters. There is a small galley where crew and passengers can make their own food and eat it in their rooms, or in a very small common room which has a 5' by 5' table with 4 chairs and a Dejarik holograph game at it's center.These 4 rooms, the galley and the common room flank the central hallway which starts at the cockpit and runs the length of the ship back to the engineering compartments. These rooms are also exclusively on the top deck.Her bottom deck is dedicated to a single large cargo bay which can easily be converted to hold additional passengers. Cargo Capacity Her single large hold on the bottom deck also serves as the ships primary entrance and exit. The cargobay opens up on the forward side, lowering it's massive door which then becomes the boarding ramp. Cargo can then just be walked or driven up the ramp and unloaded into the hold. The ship lacks landing gear as it just sits and rests on the very belly of the ship, which means it requires a rather large piece of flat terrain in order to set down but also allows all cargo loading to be done primary on the ground level instead of require lifters to bring it up several decks to be placed on a higher cargo hold. Some daring pilots get such a good feel for their ship that they can balance the ship on a narrower piece of landing zone. Access to the top deck is by a two person elevator at the rear of the cargo hold which comes up to the top deck just within the engineering compartments. The elevator is also flanked by a ladder in case of a power failure or malfunction to the elevator. Engineering There are two engineering compartments, main engineering and engineering access. Engineering access is where the elevator to the cargo bay comes up, and is primarily used for tool and spare parts storage. It has a workbench and a large tool locker and a small welding booth. Main engineering is the compartment that gives access to the ships engines. the secondary engines are not directly accessible from main engineering except for the hydraulics for their swivel mounts, fuel and power lines. To do direct maintenance on either of the secondary engines, landing or a spacewalk is required.